Gimlet Goes Again/plot
Introduction A two page introduction which summarises the events of King of the Commandos. Chapter I: A Patriot Dies for France Gimlet and Cub parachute into France in response to an urgent summons from the Grey Fleas, given through a pre-arranged signal. The Fox shows them the dead body of a French underground courier Jacques Catron who had been wounded in a Gestapo ambush. Before dying he told the Fox that he was scheduled to meet a British agent in Caen with a vital message from the leadership of the French resistance but had died before he could give details. More worrying, Fox had learnt that the Germans planned to insert an impostor to meet the British agent. Gimlet decides to make the rendezvous to forestall this. The only available civilian clothes of Gimlet's size are those of the dead man. Gimlet is not squeamish. He puts them on and sets off with Cub for the rendezvous. Chapter II: Restaurant des Voyageurs Gimlet and Cub settle down in the assigned rendezvous, the Restaurant des Voyageurs in Caen. They have to hope for the best. They do not know the British agent nor did Catron manage to tell Fox about a password, secret sign or other identification system. But they do not have long to mull. An unteroffizier of the German military police comes in to examine the patrons. Gimlet and Cub are not carrying identification cards so he tells them to go with him. At the exit of the cafe, they meet a pale-faced man with a small moustache coming in. Outside some Gestapo men challenge them but they let the unteroffizier and his two charges go. The unteroffizier takes Gimlet and Cub to a street corner and questions them in French. Gimlet, like Cub, senses he is not what he seems to be and gives straight answers. Meanwhile Trapper and Fox arrive stealthily to help. Trapper grabs the unteroffizier but everyone is surprised when he sudden calls out in English, "What the devil are you fellows playing at?" It turns out the unteroffizier is a British agent codenamed "Numero Neuf" but he can't understand how some commandos are mixed up in this affair. Gimlet explains how he got involved. "Numero Neuf" is worried. They don't know what the urgent message from the French resistance is, and the French resistance leaders do not know the message didn't get through. Numero Neuf is expected back in England and if he doesn't get back, another man would be sent to the same rendezvous and might well walk into the same trap. At Numero's request, Gimlet agrees to go to Paris to make contact with the French resistance to find out what the message is. Chapter III: Paris Express Late in the night, Gimlet and Cub proceed to the railway station to board the train to Paris while Fox and Trapper go back to the hideout to wait for orders. From the carriage, Gimlet and Cub see Generaloberst Gunther talking to the same man they now called Paleface whom they met while leaving the Restaurant des Voyageurs. He looks vaguely familiar and they conclude he must be the false Catron! Cub crawls under the carriage to eavesdrop and overhears Gunther ordering Paleface to go to Paris, infiltrate the resistance and find out what Catron's message was. Just before the train starts, there is a nervous moment when Paleface opens their compartment door and then excuses himself. Did he recognise them? During the journey two passengers join Gimlet and Cub in their compartment. One kept his face always hidden behind a newspaper. The other, a hachet-faced man dressed like a mechanic, who soon appears to be asleep. Approaching Paris, the man behind the newspaper reveals he is the Gestapo and tells them to keep still, but the mechanic quickly shoots him dead. Gimlet helps the mechanic dispose of the body out of the window. The mechanic tells them the dead man was Wilhelm Fluger from the Gestapo. He himself is from the resistance and his job is to escort them safely to Paris. Saying thus, he excuses himself and disappears. Chapter IV: The Trap The train arrives at the Gare St. Lazare. Gimlet and Cub proceed to a shop of Pierre Sabonier at 117 Rue de Lorraine. Numero Neuf had told them to go there to contact the resistance. Leaving Cub on watch nearby, Gimlet goes inside and, abiding by the procedure he was given, asked for "Monsieur Rouge".... and finds himself promptly arrested by the Gestapo and thrown into the back room. A number of other prisoners are already there. Chapter V: Cub Sets the Pace Outside, Cub is getting worried, and even more so when he sees Paleface entering the shop. Cub then sees the hachet-faced mechanic from the train passing by and grabs his attention. The mechanic is alarmed to hear the Gimlet has gone inside--the Gestapo have set a trap within--there were the chalk marks on the window indicating danger to those in the know. Cub plans a rescue and the mechanic who now introduces himself as Domique Purcelle agrees to help, and not too soom, for a prison van pulls up in front of the shop. In what Gimlet calls true commando style, the two hijack the van, knock out the driver and guard and drive off with the prisoners. They drive to the shop of Dominque's brother Felix, near the Gare de Lyons. Felix is a builder and has tools to remove the handcuffs from the prisoners. The van is abandoned near the railway station. Chapter VI: Underground Felix takes Gimlet and Cub into the old sewers of Paris to the secret command post of the French resistance where they meet the leader, General Roularde, also known as "Monsieur Rouge". Roularde tells Gimlet the message Catron was supposed to deliver. The Germans are producing aero engines at the Renault works in Paris. To prevent British bomber raids, they had quartered British P.O.W.s, mainly commandos, within the compound. The French resistance had dug a tunnel into the area and are ready to set the prisoners free while timing the escape with a bombing raid to destroy the factory. The prisoners would then travel to a cloth mill at Claire under the cover of being cyclists in a bicycle race. At Claire, French riders will take the bikes to the finishing post of the race at Rouen. Here The British would have to take over from there. The French resistance do not have the means to feed the escapees, nor the transport to evacuate them to England. Chapter VII: The "K" Plan Using an escape route prepared by the French underground, Gimlet and Cub return to Caen where they make their way to the Grey Fleas hideout. Copper and Trapper are there. Numero Neuf has also come back from England and now reveals to Gimlet that he is General Sir Saxon Craig, the Assistant Director of M.I.5. Gimlet lays out the French underground plan. What is so important about the Renault factory, he wonders. Numero Neuf explains that there had been intelligence reports that the Germans had been conducting some secret experiments in a special shed in the compound. He also adds that most of the prisoners were commandos captured after the Dieppe raid. Some were "kittens", Gimlet's own men. Gimlet proposes to expand on the plan. Besides freeing the commandos, they could mark the targets for the bombers with flares, and generally set the place on fire. The difficulty was extraction after getting to the mill at Claire. For this he proposes to attack and capture the nearby German bomber base at Rambours so that aircraft could land and pick them up. This is a military operation, so Gimlet agrees to lead it but he asks Numero Neuf to arrange for Biggles to take charge of the air transport. He needs someone absolutely reliable. Chapter VIII: Saturday Numero Neuf brings the plan to England and it is approved. Gimlet and co. now follow the instructions General Roularde had given them on how to get back to Paris. They head for the east railway signal box to meet a railway shunter named Hilaire. Scouting ahead, Cub opens the signal box door and sees.... Paleface! They struggle desparately before Hilaire and Copper intervene and knock him out. There is no choice, The unconscious Paleface would have to come with them as Hilaire hides them in a vegetable wagon which is then hitched to a train to be taken to Paris. Chapter IX: Warm Work at the Terminus Paleface recovers consciousness during the journey. He refuses to talk and seems quietly confident, as if he has a trick up his sleeve. And he does. Arriving at Gare St. Lazare, they see German soldiers, Gestapo men and Bussemann. It's a roundup! Various Frenchmen who had come to receive the train were already being held prisoner, including Dominique. Gimlet is unfazed an plans to strike fast. Paleface is locked in a vegetable basket. Meanwhile the German troops begin searching the train. Gimlet throws a grenade among some German troops. On cue, Copper heads for a light lorry at one end. Gimlet and Trapper attack the main body of German troops. Meanwhile Cub heads for Dominique and tells him to move all the Frenchmen to Copper's lorry. Surprise works to their advantage. The commandos and Frenchmen all board the lorry and Dominque drives it away to an French underground safehouse. Chapter X: Sunday Gimlet and his team are taken to see General Roularde. He approves Gimlet's enlarged plan although he is a little taken aback by its audacity. Gimlet does have one complication: after the freed prisoners set off on their cycle race, his team will need transport to catch up and take control of the men when they arrive at the mill. The French underground can provide the transport, with Dominique as a guide but they need petrol. After some discussion, Gimlet plans to raid the fuel supplies from the Renault factory itself, from the garage of one Herr Streiner, the German overseer of the works. Gimlet concludes by reporting the appearance of Paleface and how he might have compromised the train route between Caen and Paris. Roularde tells him Paleface had been found in the basket where Copper tied him up in, and he would be questioned carefully. Towards evening, with zero hour approaching, Roularde and Felix turn up at the safehouse to tell Gimlet the plan must be called off. The Germans suspect something. At a level crossing at Villant, between Paris and Claire, troops under one Hauptmann Hausmayer would be posted and they would perform a spot check on the cyclists. Gimlet insists the scheme must go on, as there is no way of stopping the bombers. If the prisoners are not freed, they would be killed by the bombs. The General is worried but agrees. Chapter XI: Zero Hour At zero hour, Gimlet and co. go through the tunnel dug from an old gymnasium to underneath the Renault works. They enter the prison hut and free the captured commandos who are led back through the tunnel to the gymnasium where they are kitted out and set off on the cycle race. Trapper is posted to guard the tunnel while Gimlet and the others proceed to take out the guardhouse and lock the occupants inside. Chapter XII: The Raid They make their way to the garage of Herr Streiner but the petrol can is bolted to the car and they cannot free it. They are already behind schedule so Gimlet decides to just take the car. They stop at a long low workshop. Gimlet looks inside: this must be the shed where the Germans are conducting experiments, by the looks of it, developing high octane fuels. Gimlet tosses a few time delay charges and they drive on. By this time, the guards have been fully alerted and there is lots of shouting and shooting. Outside, sirens begin to blare to warn of the approaching bombers. There is a massive explosion as the charges tossed into the special shed explode. Trapper and Dominique come running towards the car. The tunnel has gone they say. A water mains had burst, threatening to flood the tunnei. General Roularde had to fire the charges to seal the tunnel. There is no other choice, they decide to make their egress in Streiner's car. Chapter XIII: Cub Springs the Trap Driving towards Villant, they overtake the gaggle of cyclists. Gimlet stops just before the level crossing and sends Cub ahead to scout. The report is bad: Hauptmann Hausmayer has some forty-eight men. Gimlet and his team can't possibly take them all out. Cub suggests a subterfuge. They would backtrack to a phone box. Gimlet would call the signal hut at the level crossing and pretend to be a superior officer and order Hausmayer to stand down. The ruse works admirably and the cyclists pass through unhindered. Not long after, Bussemann and an assistant turns up shouting for Hausmayer. Gimlet holds them up but they resist so are shot dead. Chapter XIV: The Muster at the Mill The cyclists reach the mill at Claire where French underground members don the cycling costumes, take the machines and proceed to finish the race at Rouen. Meanwhile Biggles' aircraft drop supplies for Gimlet's men. There's weapons for the attack on Rambours, but also a pleasant surprise: bread, ham and cheese. A short rest and the commandos proceed on their way. Chapter XV: Grand Finale The commandos strike and capture the airfield. Biggles and his pilots land their Wellingtons and ferry the troops back to England. Back home, Gimlet tells Cub his father is at the officers mess waiting for him. There is talk about Cub being sent to an officers' training unit. Category:Plot summaries